Web 2.0 & The California Fire Crisis

I was in San Diego this week, and the wildfires there were extraordinary. Hundreds of thousands of people — normal, suburban, it-can’t-happen-to-me people — were displaced, stuck on roadways and desperate for information. The nature of the emergency — multiple fires, moving quickly — meant information was often conflicting.

There are robust systems available for emergency rescue teams that distribute data reliably during emergencies. And we have the Emergency Alert System to warn us on radio.

But today’s end user demands more than just a radio broadcast. As Wired points out, Twitter subscribers can mimic this model with a cell phone to receive quick updates.

In this era of personalization and mobility, it’s great to see an online community putting the latest tools to work. This combination of portable devices, mashups, and real-time status updates gives us a warning system for the masses.